Radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging: a bibliometric study in Iran

Introduction: Nowadays, science mapping is considered an excellent technique for decision-makers to find solutions for problems in research planning and development. In this work, we aimed to depict a science map of “radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging” in Iran. Methods: All publications indexed in Thomson Reuters Web of Science database in the fields mentioned above with at least one affiliation corresponding to “Iran” were included in the study. “Visualization of similarities” (VOS) viewer software was then utilized to analyze the data for generating density maps and density cluster maps of organizations, authors, and journals based on bibliographic coupling and co-citation similarity measures. Results: Various maps were then formed and discussed. Tehran University of Medical Sciences in all fields of radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging was proved to be the dominant organization in the country. Conclusion: Applying VOSviewer software, data was analyzed for extracting bibliographic coupling and co-citation relations and theirs corresponding science maps in terms of affiliated organizations, authors, and publishing journals. More comprehensive studies can be performed to obtain more mature science maps. Performing such analyses for other countries and then comparing with the internal science maps can be useful for decision-makers.